With the team's home opener just nine days away and reportedly 4,000 student season tickets still unsold, IU Athletics has announced that it has begun to sell the leftover tickets to the general public.
Despite a fierce marketing campaign by IU's first-year coach Tom Crean to reach out to students, there has been an unprecedented decrease in student season ticket sales. Last season, with the program seemingly on the rise, IU Athletics sold 8,061 season tickets to students. This year, with the program emerged in rebuilding mode, the department has sold about half that figure, according to a story in The Herald-Times.
The original deadline for students to purchase season tickets passed on Oct. 6, but the athletic department extended the deadline in hopes of selling more tickets. IU has already sold out its allotment of tickets for public renewals, faculty and staff.
With an "inventory" of unused student tickets, IU will now make the 4,000 tickets, primarily located in the balcony, available to the general public through Ticketmaster. The tickets will be sold as season and single game tickets with prices varying. Students will still be able to purchase season tickets throughout the season.
In a one-on-one interview on Oct. 23, Crean stressed the importance of the student fan base.
"There really has never been a student body that I could think of anywhere in the country that is going to be needed more than us as we go through these first few seasons here," Crean said.
The general public will have to pay more than twice the amount students didn't want to pay for the tickets. Student season tickets cost $210, while the public can now purchase the seats for $451.
Crean said late last month that he was discouraged with the student season ticket sales.
"I don't think they are where they should be," Crean said. "I don't want that to become a disappointment because we might be disappointed in the short term. But the students who don't get them - or don't choose to buy them - are going to be disappointed in the long term."
Now Hoosier fans that haven't been able to get tickets in the past, or have their names on long waiting lists, will get a chance to buy tickets that typically wouldn't be available.
Crean said in the press release that this is a "great opportunity for someone who maybe hasn't hade the opportunity before to become involved with our program the ground up."
"We have been overwhelmed with support from throughout the state and we are hopeful that this opportunity will give many a chance to become more intimately involved with this year's team as we look toward the future. We look forward to Assembly Hall filling up game after game like it has always been," he said.
